News that the end of the despised Bedroom Tax was in sight on Friday came too late for cancer victim Jan Mandeville, reports the Sunday People.

The 52-year-old grandmother’s funeral was on Thursday.

And, according to her family, her death was hastened when she was forced to move home despite her fatal illness.

Jan – who also suffered depression and fibromyalgia, making even basic movement painful – could not afford the extra rent on the two-bed flat she loved so she had to switch to a smaller property that she hated.

Last year, Jan told how she fell into rent arrears following the housing benefit reforms which forced her to move home that year.

She said: “The worry made me so ill that I was in hospital with stress.”

Her distraught daughter Nicola Braithwaite, 28, told the Sunday People: “Her health ­deteriorated after she left where she wanted to be. What she went through breaks my heart.

"They let her slip through the net.

“They didn’t consider that not only did she have physical illnesses, she had mental illnesses too.

“They were heightened ­because of what happened. A lot of it was from that.”

Jan worked as a care ­assistant and in hotels until she quit due to poor health eight years ago.

While employed, she paid her taxes and hoped she could rely on the welfare state when she needed help.

But her family say she was failed by the system, repeatedly quizzed about her fitness to work and eventually forced to abandon her home because of the sweeping benefits cuts which kicked in 17 months ago.

Tragedy: Janet Mandeville, at her two-bed bungalow in Truro

Nicola, who has a five-year-old son, Alfie, said her mother became increasingly stressed by the constant form-filling and struggled to get support.

She said: “It was too much for her, she couldn’t handle it.

"She suffered from depression and anxiety and that upped her anxiety levels. Then the cancer spread.”

In the end, a combination of the cancer and fibromyalgia left Jan in a pitiful state.

Nicola, of Oakwood, Derbs, added: “She was literally crawling around her flat.

“It was just awful.”

Jan, who received employment support allowance, lived in Cornwall, 300 miles from her family, after moving to the south-west more than 20 years ago.

She loved her life by the sea and rented a two-bed council flat in Truro which she shared with her two cats, Fudge and Boots.

But when David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010, Jan’s simple, contented life began to suffer.

Jan’s ex-husband Mark Braithwaite, 58, of Willington, Derbs, does not hesitate when asked who he blames for her misery before her death.

“I blame the state,” said gas engineer Mark. “It’s difficult to live on a small amount of money. She was forced out.

“She fought a battle to find a place she liked and then this tax set in.

“She had to get out and find a one-bedroom place. She was obviously upset to leave. She was devastated.

"She was hurt that she had lost the place she actually liked. She was settled. This really screwed her up.

"She was already suffering health problems.

Grief: Nicola Jasmine Braithwaite (Photo: Sunday Mirror)

"She tried to get disability this, that and the other and they just kept turning their backs on her.

“She had a long fight with them just to prove she was ill. It took it out of her. I can’t imagine what it was like for her.

"She was going through hell.

“Her health difficulties were made worse by what she was going through. She was absolutely in a black hole with everything. I felt so sorry for her.”

A Cornwall Council spokeswoman said: “We and social housing providers have worked to contact and assist tenants potentially affected by the Government’s welfare reform, including under occupancy penalties.

"Advisors are in contact with those affected to discuss their needs and to offer help.

“Discretionary housing awards have also been made available to help with short-term rental costs to enable individuals to seek and secure alternative accommodation.

“Cornwall Housing agreed to a request from Ms Mandeville for a property swap in June 2013 so that she was not affected by the under- occupancy penalties.

"We have no record of any complaints about the property.”

A DWP spokeswoman: “We have made £345million available to councils to support vulnerable people since reforms were introduced.